I remember, assigned it at school, loathing The Chocolate War. It is probably a great book because of it, but I found the "Can't win, will never win, don't bother trying, we will destroy you if you step out of line" theme monumentally depressing and alienating. I couldn't figure out why we were assigned it. Perhaps the teacher did not competently handle it, but I almost felt that instead of it teaching about oppression and the dangerous courage in being out of step with the mass, it was a warning to us to keep in line or suffer the consequences, from our peers and from authority. It affected me greatly at the time (young, very shy, closeted, gay lad).

Which tells me I should reread it, I guess. Perhaps there was hope, and less defeat, in there than I remember. To be so affecting, I do have to recall it with respect.

Cheers,
Marc (It was over 25 years ago, I think. I was young, memory is hazy)

I remember, assigned it at school, loathing The Chocolate War. It is probably a great book because of it, but I found the "Can't win, will never win, don't bother trying, we will destroy you if you step out of line" theme monumentally depressing and alienating. I couldn't figure out why we were assigned it. Perhaps the teacher did not competently handle it, but I almost felt that instead of it teaching about oppression and the dangerous courage in being out of step with the mass, it was a warning to us to keep in line or suffer the consequences, from our peers and from authority. It affected me greatly at the time (young, very shy, closeted, gay lad).

Which tells me I should reread it, I guess. Perhaps there was hope, and less defeat, in there than I remember. To be so affecting, I do have to recall it with respect.

Cheers,
Marc (It was over 25 years ago, I think. I was young, memory is hazy)

I would definitely encourage you to re-read it.

I somehow escaped being assigned To Kill a Mockingbird, even in College. Finally, just last year, I decided to read it... somewhat reluctantly, knowing it's exactly one of those books you're usually "forced" to read in school. Turns out, I loved it, and even to this day sometimes wander back to it in thought: the writing style, the wonderful characters, the tragedy of racism, God's unconditional love manifest in one quiet, unassuming gentleman, the power of a child's voice, names like Jem, Scout, Atticus, and of course Boo Radley! etc., etc., etc.

However, had I read it in High School, or even early College years, I know it would have been mostly lost on me. While ostensibly centered around main characters who are children, it's truly an "adult" book. (I can see educators making the mistake of "hey the characters are kids, it must be for kids!) And as I would say about so many great books, this touched me to the point that I would call it being blessed.

A weird thing happened with my copy of Fanny Hill. I read the first chapter on my Kindle 3, then when I closed the book, it disappeared. Didn't show up on my main screen, any of my collections, or the Archive. So, figuring it may be a K3 glitch, I retrieved it from the Archive of my K2, but as soon as I closed the book on that Kindle, the same thing happened. So I hooked the Kindles to my computer one by one, did a virus scan on both, and deleted the document and it's associated file from each, then bought a different copy from Amazon for 99¢.

The new copy is MUCH better! It's got PICTURES! The kind you can't post to MobileRead!

It was a long time ago, but I believe the reason was that a grade sixer was not mature enough to read such a book, probably due to the language, i.e. swearing. He just said it was inappropriate and not acceptable.